Class Description
Whether your passion lies in high fantasy, hard scifi, or fiction with just a touch of the weird, learning to craft (inter)stellar short stories can be a great building block on the way to completing a novel, a way to test drive characters and concepts, or a fulfilling career in itself. Short and flash fiction provide a bird's eye view of the dramatic arc and practice in writing to "The End." NK Jemisin, the triple Hugo Award-winning novelist, credits work on short fiction for teaching her about "the quick hook and the deep character" and giving her "space to experiment with unusual plots and story forms." Plus, shorts are marketable! From online journals to print magazines to anthologies, outlets for speculative shorts abound.
In this seminar we’ll discuss techniques for fitting big ideas into small spaces and learn about expectations specific to speculative shorts. You’ll have the opportunity to PITCH/EXAMINE potential ideas, and consider a flash fiction prompt to get you started. Authors discussed may include Catherynne M Valente, Isabel Yap, Daniel Jose Older, Charlie Jane Anders, Rebecca Roanhorse, G Willow Wilson, and Ken Liu.
This class will be hosted using live Zoom meetings! You will be able to participate in class via Zoom videoconference from wherever you’re most comfortable. All you’ll need is a laptop or a phone! About 15 minutes before your class is scheduled to begin, you'll receive an email from your instructor with a link to join the class meeting via Zoom–no need to download anything or sign up for Zoom in advance! If you have questions about remote learning, please feel free to reach out to [email protected] for more information.
For a glimpse at how remote learning works, look no further than the deep Zoom discussion of writing and literature below:
Scholarship Information
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. After registering, a yellow Resources tab will appear in this section containing a link to join class. Please note that you will need to be logged into view the Resources tab.
Zoom Participation:
In our experience, the intimate nature of a writing workshop benefits from on-camera participation. Students are of course welcome to turn their camera off whenever they need to, but it is a community norm for cameras to be on most of the time. You can learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
You can enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting by clicking the CC button at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to access the transcript after class, please make sure to let your instructor ahead of time that you'd like a copy.